Don't send John Hopkins cancer news please 'cause even Johns Hopkins denies it

I understand folks just want to help. That's good because the trend for twentysomethings with cancer is to assume no help is needed. But midway into the fifth month of my daughter's battle I assure you that's not true.

But, before you send me or my daughter the list of things you got via email on the real cancer story look to see what medical center is mentioned. There is no John Hopkins. It is Johns Hopkins. And Johns Hopkins has been saying over and over that the list is not theirs. Here's the December 2008 Johns Hopkins press release.

So if you get a note that starts out something like this:

"AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY (TRY BEING THE KEY WORD) AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHN HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY

Cancer Update from John Hopkins:

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size."

Please know if you get an email that seems unbelievable or you want to check before you send it on, please check it out at Hoax Slayers or Snopes.

As my daughter says over on her Myspace.com page:

"Just wanted to let you know about this email. I have received it several times now and I looked it up on the internet. John Hopkins didn't produce it and doesn't endorse the letter. However they say that some of the life style items could help towards cancer prevention but that the best sites to go for the information regarding food is the www.cancer.gov.

"I found this site that has statements from John Hopkins and information on the plastic container, the freezing and heating them.

She also shares some information about her diet because the "Hopkins" email does have some good diet tips.

"But one has to look them up on the website because some of the items prevent cancer can also cause it. Many vegetarians still get cancer even though they don't consume meat. It's really dependent on if the cancer type was hormone receptive and other genetic types to the cancer cells.

"I thought I would let you know since you stated you weren't sure. The diet I'm doing is mainly organic and hormone growth free meats, eggs, and milk. My reasons for this is my cancer type was homorne receptive to estrogen and proestrogen, and therefore I have to take a med that reduces my hormones in my system, i figure if I cut back the foods that contain hormones then that helps in the long run... I still go out to eat and eat sweets its just more in moderation then before."

So let's end with advice from my daughter:

"I don't want people to get scared passing this email around. Just don't believe everything that's got some name attached it. I've found this to be very true in all cancer research."